loading...
The Conversation
1974
Gene Hackman stars in THE CONVERSATION as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert whose job is taping the lives and conversations of others. With the character of Caul, director Francis Ford Coppola has created a complex role for which Hackman is perfect--a man in complete control on the outside but breaking down within. Teri Garr, .. Read more
| Starring | Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams |
|---|---|
| Director | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
loading...
The Conversation
Gene Hackman stars in THE CONVERSATION as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert whose job is taping the lives and conversations of others. With the character of Caul, director Francis Ford Coppola has created a complex role for which Hackman is perfect--a man in complete control on the outside but breaking down within. Teri Garr, Harrison Ford, and Elizabeth MacRae co-star, but Hackman, in top form in every scene, is the real reason to watch this true classic.The stirring, classic opening shot of the film is a long, slow zoom into Union Square in San Francisco. A young couple, Mark (Frederic Forrest) and Ann (Cindy Williams), are having what seems like a mundane conversation while Harry and his assistant Stanley (John Cazale) eavesdrop from a nearby van. But when Harry carefully analyses his tape, he uncovers bits of unsettling dialogue. Suspicious of his client's motives for wanting the tape, he becomes uncharacteristically worried about the people he may have endangered.
| Starring | Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest |
|---|---|
| Director | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Studio | WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 48 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 01 Aug 2005 Production year: 1974 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Critics' reviews (2)
View all -
In this small masterpiece from director Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman gives a superb performance as the lonely surveillance expert tracking the movements and voices of Frederic Forrest and Cindy Williams, only to find that the marital infidelity he supposes he is observing could be part of a murder plot. Coppola tweaks the idea to surreal effect, while editor Walter Murch orchestrates the eavesdropping to produce a uniquely baffling wall of sound. Made two years after Coppola's The Godfather, this haunting thriller skilfully taps into post-Watergate paranoia resulting in an intensely fascinating study of a perpetrator turned victim of the surveillance society.
-
An inner rather than outer-directed film about the threat of electronic surveillance, conceived well before the... read more on Time Out
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
33 out of 36 people found this review helpful
My Favourite Film.... Ever!!!
This has to be my favourite film, I'll tell you why...
1. Gene Hackman is in it and he's the don. I think this has to be his best role. Hackman plays it to a tea. Subtle and understated, we feel his pain. Always worth watching!!
2. Its got a great plot!!! Which unravels as the film moves along.. Nice & neat twist.
3. Great film sound. I love the sound in this film. Its paranoid and edgy and it makes the atmosphere claustrophobic. I also love the music soundtrack with its eery signature theme which represents Harry's pain, loneliness and isolation.
For me this is Coppola at the pinacle of his powers. He made 'The Conversation' between the two 'Godfather' films which a lot of people consider to be the best Hollywood cinema of all time.
Peace. Gonz -
Most recent members' review
View all -
26 out of 27 people found this review helpful
Best film of the 70s?
Long before he started making films about Robin Williams as a boy-child, Francis Ford Coppola directed intelligent works like The Conversation. Ostensibly about professional eavesdropper Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) who is hired to tape a conversation between two apparent innocents, Coppola fashions an extraordinary work that fuses urban loneliness and a deep suspicion of corporate America. Clearly influenced by Blow Up, in which a bystander is similarly drawn into a murky, conspiratorial world, this 1974 classic initially plays as documentary before the thriller element assumes prominence. Yet this is a thriller in which no gun is fired and no flashy pyrotechnics used to generate suspense. Instead, the dispassionate gaze and beguiling sound design do the work for us. Suffice to say that a flushing toilet and a misheard conversation would be roundly rejected by today’s studios as too meek for the basis of a thriller. Yet in this film, both are crucial elements. The performances throughout are wonderfully modulated. Hackman has rarely been better; a seething mix of neurosis and impotency, and he is ably abetted by John Cazale and Harrison Ford. While not as grand as the two Godfathers, The Conversation is arguably richer and more relevant: the final scene, of Hackman alone in his stripped apartment, is a remarkable metaphor for the state of a nation still reeling from revelations of a break-in at a certain Washington hotel.
-
News and features
View all
The International
- 23 Feb 2009
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts get heavy on rogue banks. It’s a lot sexier than Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, especially as Clive’s brand of punishment means jail terms and broken noses, not bail-outs and bonus caps. The International is hardly the first film to make arrogant capitalists the heavies, but the timing could hardly be better. (At the Berlin Film Festival recently Watts joked the global recession was a publicity stunt.) In fact Tom Tykwer’s thriller is inspired... Read more
-
More like this
View allShowing 1 to 4 of 20
Related user collection
They Shoot Pictures, Don't They Greatest 1000 Films... (321)
79.2% from 13 members
by:
Tolis
from Kent